Women's Basketball Adds Missy Traversi to Coaching Staff

Lavietes Pavilion (photo courtesy of Gil Talbot).

Head coach Kathy Delaney-Smith announced the hiring of
Massachusetts native Missy Traversi as the newest member of the
Harvard women’s basketball coaching staff Wednesday.
Traversi, a first-team All-America East selection at Maine moves to
the collegiate coaching ranks after coaching at the high school,
AAU and international levels.

“We are very excited to have Missy join our staff,”
Delaney-Smith said. “She brings a wealth of knowledge
as a point guard, invaluable international playing and coaching
experience and most importantly, an incredible level of energy and
passion for the game.”

While at Maine, Traversi led her team to an NCAA tournament
appearance, two WNIT appearances and three regular season America
East titles. As a point guard and floor leader she led her team in
scoring. During her junior campaign, she logged in a season- high
20 points in the first round of the NCAA tournament against
top-ranked Texas Tech. In her senior season, she served as
team captain, was named first team all-conference, became a member
of the 1,000-point scoring club and earned a contract to play
professional basketball in Sweden.

In her first season on the professional circuit, Traversi was
the number one scorer in Sweden, averaging 23.5 points per game for
the 2005-2006 regular season. At the end of her first year in
Europe, she was invited to the 2006 WNBA Chicago Sky training camp.

Traversi decided to throw her hat in the ring as a coach and
returned to the Bay State to serve as Brookline High School
girls’ varsity basketball coach for the following
year. She returned to Sweden to play her second
professional season in 2007-2008 where she was later named the
assistant coach of her team.

Most recently Missy coached two seasons at Dover Sherborn High
School and during the 2008-2009 season was named the Tri Valley
League Coach of the Year.

Traversi was a three-sport athlete at Bishop Feehan High School
in Attleboro. She scored 1,000 points and earned selections to the
Boston Globe All-Scholastic and Boston Herald
Dream Team.

Missy founded MT Elite, her own inspiring brand of basketball
training that includes private shooting lessons, group
instruction, team training, summer camps, and skill clinics
throughout the Boston area.

Traversi graduated from Maine in 2005 with a bachelor’s
degree in communications and a minor in public relations.